The Evergreen Laws of Marketing (techies take note!)

The single most insightful marketing book I’ve ever read was published nearly 20 years ago, before the Web was anything more than an academic experiment: The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing by Al Ries and Jack Trout.

The Law of LeadershipIt’s better to be first than it is to be “better” — the leading brand in almost any category is the one that embedded itself first in the neural pathways of its prospects. In the best cases, the name may even become generic: Kleenex. Coke. FedEx. Or, a more contemporary example, Google. (A subsequent Law of the Mind notes, “Being first in the mind is everything in marketing. Being first in the marketplace is important only to the extent that it allows you to get in the mind first.”)

The Law of the CategoryIf you can’t be first in a category, set up a new category you can be first in. “Forget the brand. Think categories. Prospects are on the defensive when it comes to brands. Everyone talks about why their brand is better. But prospects have an open mind when it comes to categories. Everyone is interested in what’s new.”

The Law of FocusThe most powerful concept in marketing is owning a word in the prospect’s mind. “The most effective words are simple and benefit oriented. No matter how complicated the product, no matter how complicated the needs of the market, it’s always better to focus on one word or benefit rather than two or three or four.” Overnight = FedEx. Safety = Volvo. Cola = Coke.

The Law of AttributesFor every attribute, there is an opposite, effective attribute. If you’re not the leader in your market, it’s futile to try to own their word. “It’s much better to search for an opposite attribute that will allow you to play off against the leader. The key word here is opposite — similar won’t do.

I’d list the other 18 — they’re all great — but it would border on copyright infringement.

Admittedly, it’s easy to poke holes in something written 20 years ago. There are numerous examples in the book that time has worn away — e.g., IBM for being the leader in computers, even though “computer” today is arguably owned by Dell and IBM has moved on to “technology consulting.” Atari used to own “video games.” Today it’s owned by Sony with Playstation.

But nothing lasts forever. The laws of marketing that are focused on owning a particular word aren’t a guarantee of eternal permanence. But within the scope of a reasonable competitive battlefield — 5 years, 10 years, maybe more — it’s absolutely the benchmark of victory. And while some of the victors from yesteryear have gone away, many others have persisted (e.g., Hertz for car rentals), and still others (e.g., Apple) have evolved to own entirely new categories.

(Yahoo! now seems to want to own “display advertising” — but that’s not a value proposition for users.)

Another law, The Law of Exclusivity — two companies cannot own the same word in the prospect’s mind — is one of the reasons Google is struggling so much with its social networking attempts. Its best bet, which they seem to be pursuing, is to play up social dynamics as a part of “search,” the word they do own. But they’ve got their work cut out for them.

Bing has been desperately trying to compete for “search” — they even tried to own the word “decide,” but it seems that consumers today are more interested in searching than deciding. (It’s no good owning a word if prospects don’t latch on to it.) Microsoft has spent a fortune on trying to dislodge the equation of “search” with Google in people’s minds. It’s nearly impossible to do.

I acknowledge that the Law of Leadership can be hard to perceive in the early stage of technological innovation — there are many examples of the first entrant to a market losing out to someone else shortly thereafter. But to reiterate Ries’ & Trout’s main point: being first in the market isn’t as important as being first in the mind. The Altair was the first home computer, but the Apple II ended up owning that space by being the first in more people’s minds. (Shortly afterwards, IBM owned the “PC” in people’s minds — a personal computer that was more serious than a mere home computer.)

So, even though Apple wasn’t the first MP3 player, Google wasn’t the first search engine, and Facebook wasn’t the first social network, in the rapid evolution of new technology — whole new markets emerging from the ether — those companies ended up grabbing the leadership positions after a little early stage jostling. And they’re now darn hard to dislodge.

(Another law, The Law of the Opposite — number two players in a market need to turn the leader’s strength into a weakness — is at play in how Android is being positioned as “open” vs. the iPhone’s “closed” product philosophy.)

Some may argue that this philosophy of owning words, mindshare, and leadership positions was more feasible in the age of mass media. Once you picked your “word,” with enough money, you could hammer it into people’s brains with TV ads on all three channels — ABC, NBC, CBS. In our current age of infinitely fragmenting media, that option is going away.

But don’t confuse the phenomenon of leadership positioning with its distribution.

Businesses that succeed must still own a well-defined position in people’s minds. It’s just that they’re winning those positions through different tactics and channels — meaningful content marketing, targeted search marketing, consistent word-of-mouth in social media. Advertising still plays an important role, but its dynamics and ecosystem are radically different than 20 years ago — you can’t dominate all media, but you can laser target specific media to specific audiences.

When I saw Seth Godin speak a few weeks ago, he emphasized the incredible potential of entrepreneurial thinking, how “linchpins” can change the world in narrow markets in ways that the big giants can’t. Some might interpret that as another death knell for these old-school marketing laws, but I view it as more of a powerful shift in scale.

You still want to own a word in a prospect’s mind. But now, instead of blanketing an entire mass audience — an option that was never available to smaller businesses or more niche markets — you can focus on owning a very specific word for a very specific audience segment. For instance, a small but brilliant team may own “UX design” in the minds of the Boston software start-up community. That can be a highly valuable position.

Larger businesses may own a collection of related-but-different words for related-but-different audience segments. (Starting to sound like an AdWords portfolio strategy? That’s no coincidence.)

Anyway, if you’re a technologist and you want to grok the underlying gestalt of marketing, The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing should be on the top of your reading list. You’ll have to provide your own interpretation for our digital landscape, but I think you’ll be amazed at how the core concepts are as applicable to modern marketing as they ever were.

P.S. Totally wacky side note. I was flipping through my old copy of the book to select a few excerpts, and I happened to notice this endorsement (written in 1993):

“Powerful marketing concepts with practical evidence galore! These concepts are especially relevant to current economic and competitive conditions.” – Herman Cain, President and CEO, Godfather’s Pizza

Scott Brinker is the president & CTO of ion interactive, a leading provider of post-click marketing software and services. He writes the Conversion Science column on Search Engine Land and frequently speaks at industry events such as SMX, Pubcon and Search Insider Summit. He chairs the marketing track at the Semantic Technology Conference. He also writes a blog on marketing technology, Chief Marketing Technologist.

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